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by GreenPhoenix



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2337254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>George Huang returns to where he belongs and makes a connection with Rafael Barba. Meanwhile the squad deal with a case and Amaro's temper.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

  * For [musikurt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/musikurt/gifts).



George Huang surveyed his surroundings. Nice flat, roomier than the one he’d just left behind in Oklahoma. He’d left a lot of things behind there. Endless hours of lonely contemplation, memories of all he’d been through in New York.  
He had to return here, it was time. Oklahoma was killing him slowly, he’d tried holding on but it was pointless. He wasn’t the type for temporary hookups and the only promising guy he’d met was a married closet case.  
They’d had a brief fling until Sam had returned to the wife he’d never planned to leave anyway. He was denying part of his nature, but surface values and reasonable fear of people’s reactions held him in the lie.  
George wouldn’t live a lie, even if he sometimes omitted details to strangers. In the end, he managed to get transferred back to New York where had still had colleagues and friends. Home. Even if some things had changed for sure.

*

Rafael Barba was looking at a new case, an open and shut thing, and a guy who had raped his girlfriend in front of several witnesses at a dorm party. None of them had interfered; claiming they were too drunk or just didn’t care. But their statements were a maze of contradictions, saying the two had argued, that they hadn’t argued, that she was willing, that she wasn’t really. So, not open and shut then.  
He sighed and drained his second coffee for the day. He’d ask Huang for a profile of the suspect. Huang, despite being back only for a few weeks, was fitting in nicely. Of course he had history with the squad, and they all respected him. There were good reasons for that.  
Rafael already felt he could trust Huang, with his life if need be. Some people were like that. Luis, his first boyfriend had been one of those. He had easy manners and a loving heart. The memories were not hard to recall, but he pushed them back and resumed working.

*

Barba discussed the case with Huang who told him that he believed the suspect might be capable of violence, but there seemed to be no mental illness in his family or behaviour. Of course the man didn’t believe he’d really hurt the girl, he called it rough sex. She had a broken arm and a black eye, but he only said she’d tripped.  
“It’s awful,” said George. “I should be used to this by now.”  
“We all should, yet we never do. It’s what makes us human George. Can I call you that?”  
“Yes. What do you want me to call you?”  
“Rafael will do. So, how do we do what the job without losing our humanity?”  
“If you find out, tell me.”  
“Will do,” said Barba and smiled warmly. He liked talking to George and felt a connection with him already.

*  
George talked to Amaro about the suspect, and knew Nick could get him to confess given enough evidence. If the man was guilty. Amaro had a way with these things, now he and Rollins were out talking to the witnesses, trying to tie together jumbled events into a coherent whole, tying contradictory statements into a wholly realized image. It was like laying a giant jigsaw puzzle, with some pieces missing.  
It was up to the detectives to add the missing facts, to weed out falsehoods and misconceptions. They also had to try and not allow their personal lives to interfere. The squad had a bad history of that, admittedly.  
Elliot had finally succumbed to that too-hot temper and those personal demons, and they had undone him. Amaro ran a real risk of following down his path. George had gone to see Elliot some nights ago. He was teaching self-defense to women, and Kathy said he was doing okay. George decided to believe her. The kids were doing fine too. George was relived, he’d worried when Elliot had never returned his mails or calls. Now he knew why, the past was best left buried.

*  
He went out with Barba, and they got drunk. Somehow they wound up in bed together. George was both happy, and a bit unnerved by the intensity that Rafael showed him. He supposed it was only logical; Barba was driven in everything he did. They touched each other with eager hands, both wanting to feel as much skin as possible. They were writing new chapters in an old story with each move. The little death that followed was powerful. Post-coital they smoked a shared cigarette and laughed, curled around each other in Barba’s expensive apartment. George saw a painting by Vermeer before dozing off. Most likely a reproduction.  
In the morning Rafael didn’t try to blame the booze, or claim it was just some momentary impulse. He insisted they should meet again that night. Huang allowed himself to be happy for a moment. Barba didn’t have a wife, and wasn’t pretending to be something he wasn’t.

*

Amaro got the suspect to confess, but left bruises on the skin rather than the soul. The suspect’s attorney would have a field day with the confession, claiming it to be coerced. Amaro was suspended for a few months. It could have gone much worse. The suspect was not suing for assault. But Nick needed help, and George took him on as a patient.

*

“You crushed the suspect on the stand,” said George. “I feel guilty for saying this, but it was great.”  
“Had to with the mess Nick made of it,” sighed Rafael.  
“You did good. Nick will come through.”  
“He’d better. They need him at SVU. He is still one of the best, even if his temper can be a bit too much.”  
“And you’re the best at what you do,” said George.  
“Everything I do, amor?”  
“Of course. Absolutely everything.”  
“Good. I look forward to proving that to you tonight.”  
George smiled at him. Maybe things were finally looking up. Even if they still had no answer to life’s great questions. Maybe the pursuit of answers was its own reward, and at least he was back where he belonged. Home was a state of mind, and his was here at last, with Rafael and the squad.


End file.
